New York City students[3] can now practice the habit of recycling in their own classrooms. Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island Public Schools will be receiving 40,000 new paper recycling bins. As part of the GrowNYC Recycling Champions[4] program, each school will help their students learn the importance of recycling.

All 700 schools in the three boroughs will receive enough recycle bins for each classroom. Donated by Pratt Industries[5], the recycling bins are themselves made from recycled paper that was collected from the three school districts, and then recycled[6] in Pratt’s Staten Island facility. The double-walled corrugated cardboard bins are each fitted with a slotted lid to encourage paper material only to be disposed within them.

Along with the Departments of Education[7] and Sanitation[8], GrowNYC[9] has made a substantial effort to help reduce the city’s output into landfills, while also educating youth for future prevention- as well as healthy green habits. GrowNYC[10] has also recently launched a citywide recycling training for the school systems’ custodial staff , which also implemented school Sustainability Engineers, who help implement the recycling programs in each classroom and staff rooms.

Schools can obtain a free recycling tool kit from GrowNYC[4], which included teaching materials, downloadable presentations and comprehensive classroom and lunchroom recycling plans.